If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Most people, whatever their opinions and protestations, do not want to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Virtually all organisations known to you work largely by means of your greed.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Learning how to learn involves examining assumptions. Mulla Nasrudin tales very often fulfil this funcition.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Never follow any impulse to teach, however strong it might be. The command to teach is not felt as an impulsion.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“They say: 'Seek wisdom while you have the strength, or you may lose the strength without gaining wisdom.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“He who knows himself, knows his Lord' means, among other things, that self-deception prevents knowledge.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions. — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Our objective is to achieve, by the understanding of the Origin, the Knowledge which comes through experience.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The institution of teachership is there for this reason, that the learner must learn how to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Why did I do such-and-such a thing?' is all very well. But what about 'How otherwise could I have done it?” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“You can learn more in half an hour's direct contact with a source of knowledge (no matter the apparent reason for the… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is no accident that Sufis find that they can connect most constructively with people who are well integrated into the world,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“From a personal experience and the examination of literature, I feel that we cannot take for granted that a dialogue, without information… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“A man is deficient in understanding until he perceives that there is a whole cycle of evolution possible within himself: repeating endlessly,… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Show a man too many camels' bones, or show them to him too often, and he will not be able to recognize… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It is a Sufi contention that truth is not discovered or maintained by the mere repetition of teachings. It can only be… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“HE is a Master who may teach without it being totally labelled teaching; HE is a student who can learn without being… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The major barrier to understanding is wishful thinking and following that which pleases one.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Q: What is a fundamental mistake of man's? A: To think that he is alive, when he has merely fallen asleep in… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“...action is in fact knowledge in operation. Right action stems from right knowledge. Right knowledge is acquired through the teacher.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The Sufis,' runs the saying, 'understand with their hearts what the most learned scholars cannot understand with their minds” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Talent is the presence of ability and absence of understanding about the source and operation of knowledge.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Man (and woman) has an infinite capacity for self-development. Equally, he has an infinite capacity for self-destruction.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The person that you feel yourself to be, according to the Sufis, is a false person, which has no true reality.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“To copy a virtue in another is more copying than it is virtue. Try to learn what that virtue is based upon.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“If you seek a teacher, try to become a real student. If you want to be a student, try to find a… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“It has truly been said that 'Humility is not so much a virtue as a necessity, in order to learn.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“People are always trying to understand. There is only one way to do that. It is to discover < + i +… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The man who knows must discharge a function. The one who does not, cannot arrogate one to himself; he can only try… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Real generosity is anonymous to the extent that a man should be prepared even to be considered ungenerous rather than explain it… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“All approaches to a study or an individual may start with a desire for attention. However they start, they must never end… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“Many a “learned” man is destroyed by ignorance and by the learning which is of no use to him’ (Hadrat Ahmed ibn… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
The Sufi is One who does not care when something is taken from him, but who does not cease to seek for… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“The real generosity is when a man does something generous when nobody knows about it.” — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“You have come a long way, and you do not know it. You have a long way to go, and you do… — Idries Shah Copy Share Image
“To be a Sufi is to detach from fixed ideas and from preconceptions; and not to try to avoid what is your lot.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
Prescribing hard work for the soft, or easy work for the hardy, is generally nonsense. What is always needed in any aim is right… — Idries Shah Copy Share
A king who feared wasps once decreed that they were abolished. As it happened, they did him no harm. But he was eventually stung… — Idries Shah Copy Share
“Do not tell your secrets to everyone in this headquarters, Earth. We have surveyed it well. There was nobody to whom to entrust secrets.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
“Sufis are those who have expunged from their minds the human tendencies of envy and enmity.” — Idries Shah Copy Share
The human being, whether he realises it or not, is trusting someone or something every moment of the day. — Idries Shah Copy Share
“You may be able to get the bone down your throat But if it reaches your stomach it will tear your navel. (Gulistan)” — Idries Shah Copy Share
“People are always trying to understand. There is only one way to do that. It is to discover < + i + >why< +… — Idries Shah Copy Share
We view Sufism not as an ideology that molds people to the right way of belief or action, but as an art or science… — Idries Shah Copy Share
